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My 26-month nephew, Big Boy has been throwing his weight around at bed-time.My sister has been in despair:“What happened to my sweet little boy” as Big Boy bangs, jumps and screams his disenchantment at Dadda who refuses to continue sharing his bedroom.The drama continued a few nights only but I decided I’m going to make a second attempt at a little children’s book about wanting to sleep.

Telling stories to tame the boy

Preparing Big Boy for new events and change by telling stories have proved to be really effective. He has a slow-to-warm temperament, which means he is slow to approach new situations. To make new things predictable fill this core need and builds confidence in shy children.

My previous attempt was to help Big Boy adapt to the new nanny that started last week.Apparently, he loves the book and that gave me some courage to attempt another book.Also, I decided that I need to do more creative stuff and painting the illustrations was just the thing, methought.

Boyfish is his name

The main character in the “We have a new Nana” book was a little fish and Big Boy quickly identified with this little fish.In the Nana-book, I just called the fish Jonathan (Big Boy’s good name, if I can use Indian vernacular) and Big Boy quickly changed it to Jonathan-fish.Likewise with the other characters:Nana-fish, Lily-fish, Mamma-fish, etc.So, the character in this book had –fish attached to it.

The book is about going to sleep so you can climb into your dream - where a boyfish can do anything. I called it "Let's go to dreamland" but not totally happy with the name.

Have a lookee

Here are some pages from the book.It’s amateurish but I’m really proud of it.Didn’t think I could create something like this.The words are not 100% in English.Maybe I should try to write in Afrikaans, my home language after all.

More to come?

My sister asked me to do some books on emotions at the toddler level.I know there are many know-your-feelings books around, but I think I want to make something I would like to use in play therapy.A whole-person approach to feelings and not merely a cognitive approach.Instead of telling the child, I want to make them connect with emotion in a more holistic manner.Still in the conceptualisation stage though.

It feels good

I just love how I can make Big Boy happy while doing something more right-brained for a bit.What do you think of my book?Any tips or ideas on how I can improve it?